Reunion with Che Che!

Guayaquil Travel Blog

After the cancellation yesterday, we were actually looking forward to getting back to the mainland. Luckily there were no hiccups with the flight this time and we were safely back in Guayaquil by 3pm. I said my goodbyes to Amanda who was off to Cuenca, and I headed for the bus terminal to try and get down the border. I randomly bumped into Che Che (the guy who´s appartment we stayed at on Santa Cruz) and had a chat with him for a few minutes. The Guayaquil bus station website was a bit misleading, saying there are buses to Peru every half an hour - this clearly wasn´t the case! There are every couple of hours (with CIFA, $6) and got one at 4.20pm. It meant I would be doing the ´worst border crossing in South America´(Lonely Planet) in the dark - not ideal! But hey, its an adventure right?! As it turned out, it was yet another uneventful border crossing for me - we got there about 9.30pm and the foreigners jumped off to get stamped out of Peru and then it was simple procedure getting into Peru - no checks, no questions, just the way I like it. It was another half hour or so to Tumbes and I had originally hoped to get an overnight bus to Trujillo, but the last one had already left. So I jumped in a mototaxi with an overzealous driver who couldnt wait to take me to this great hotel he knew...yeah, right! I found one next door, but it was still a rip off (trying to get 50 Soles/GBP12) out of me for a crap room. I eventually got him down to 35 Soles, which I still thought was a rip-off, but it was late and I was knackered, so I paid up. Tumbes didn´t look up to much, so I planned to get out of there as soon as possible!